1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of preparing cooked rice, to cooked rice prepared according to the method, and to cooked rice types comprising the cooked rice.
2. Discussion of the Background
Cooked rice has traditionally been prepared by various methods. In one method, raw rice is first washed and then soaked in water, and the soaked rice is then placed in a rice cooker and cooked in water by heating (cooker cooking). In another method, raw rice is first washed and soaked in water, the soaked rice steamed and then soaked in hot water, followed by steaming the resulting rice (steam cooking; see for example Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 224661/1984). In yet another method, raw rice is first washed and soaked in water and then steamed, and the steamed rice is then heated with warm water or water in a rice cooker (hybrid cooking; see Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 195465/1991).
Also according to traditional rice cooking methods, washed raw rice is soaked in water for 1-2 hours. When raw rice is not soaked, or soaked for only a short period of time, the resulting cooked rice is not sticky and has a hard core and very poor taste. Such a phenomenon is distinctive of rice cooked in a cooker. Thus, traditionally, a soaking step has been used in rice cooking methods. To prepare cooked rice with a desirable taste and texture, therefore, soaking of the rice in water for a sufficient period of time is carried out. However, since the soaking step lengthens the total preparation time of the cooked rice product, poor production efficiency results when rice is cooked on an industrial scale.
To increase the production efficiency of the rice cooking process, therefore, it is desirable to decrease the total preparation time of the cooked rice, especially when rice is cooked on an industrial scale. This is especially important when frozen rice food products, such as frozen pilaf and Chinese fried rice products suitable for microwave or oven cooking, are prepared on an industrially large scale.
The cooking time of the rice may be shortened by cooking the rice under pressure, or by omitting the soaking step of raw rice in water (non-soak steam cooking; see Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 327617/1995). However, cooking the rice under pressure results in a cooked rice which is excessively sticky, while non-soak steam cooking results in a rice type which is too poorly sticky. Cooked rice having a desirable taste and texture which is suitable for western-style and Chinese-style cooked rice types has not been prepared according to any of the known methods, which is a disadvantage in this industry.
The inventors have overcome the aforementioned disadvantages in the rice cooking industry by omitting the soaking process of raw rice in water. In the present method, raw rice is washed and steamed, preferably immediately after washing, and the steamed rice is then boiled in water. The washing step may be omitted if the rice used is of a type which does not need to be washed (referred to as a wash-free milled rice type hereinafter). The inventors have found that excellent cooked rice suitable for the preparation of western-style and Chinese-style cooked rice types can be prepared by their method. The inventors have also found that cooked rice type having a dry crispness and being suitable for pilaf rice can be recovered by suppressing stickiness essentially required for general plain cooked white rice.
Some advantages associated with the present method are that large-scale soaking equipment is unnecessary, resulting in a saving of space in the rice production facility, as well as a reduction in the amount of water discharged from the facility.
Prior to the present invention, there were no known methods for preparing cooked rice having the desired stickiness and fluffiness and a texture (crispness) suitable for the preparation of western-style and Chinese-style cooked rice types such as pilaf, Chinese fried rice, dry curry, paella, and buttered rice with chicken (chicken rice), on an industrially large scale and with a short cooking time.
In such circumstances, there has been a need for the development of a method for preparing cooked rice suitable for use in the preparation of the aforementioned cooked rice types.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to overcome the disadvantages of the known methods of preparing cooked rice which is suitable for western-style and Chinese-style cooked rice types. More specifically, the present invention provides an efficient method for cooking rice which omits the time-consuming step of soaking the rice in water, and which provides cooked rice having grains which adhere weakly to each other and a stickiness and fluffiness which are suitable for the preparation of western-style and Chinese-style cooked rice types.
In one embodiment of the invention, a method of preparing cooked rice comprising steaming raw rice having a water content of less than 30% by weight and then boiling the steamed rice is described.
In an alternative embodiment, cooked rice prepared by the present method is described.
In an alternative embodiment, a cooked rice type comprising the cooked rice prepared by the present method is described.